Thursday, January 28, 2016. Chaos and violence continue, the Iraqi
government continues persecuting Sunnis, Susan Sarandon speaks out for
Bernie Sanders, and much more.

Today, the US Defense Dept announced:

Strikes in Iraq Attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft and rocket artillery conducted 15 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:-- Near Baghdadi, three strikes struck two separate ISIL
tactical units, suppressed an ISIL mortar position, and destroyed three
ISIL rocket caches, two ISIL rocket rails, four ISIL mortar tubes, an
ISIL heavy machine gun and an ISIL vehicle.-- Near Habbaniyah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.-- Near Ramadi, eight strikes struck four separate ISIL
tactical units, denied ISIL access to terrain, and destroyed six ISIL
vehicle bombs, an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL staging area, an ISIL fighting
position and an ISIL mortar position.-- Near Sinjar, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and
destroyed an ISIL heavy machine gun, an ISIL light machine gun and five
ISIL fighting positions.-- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike destroyed an ISIL vehicle.Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic
events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a
single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a
single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle
is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons
against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for
example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or
impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not
report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number
of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual
munition impact points against a target.

Over 16 months after Barack Obama began bombing Iraq, there are no new ideas.

No positive results and no new ideas.

Unable to turn the mythical corner in Iraq, he does as Bully Boy Bush did before him, send more US troops into Iraq.

SPUTNIK reports, "US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter is prepared to ask for additional
troops in Iraq if additional actions need to be undertaken against the
Islamic State terror group, US Department of Defense spokesperson Peter
Cook told reporters on Wednesday." Cook stated that there are currently 3700 US troops in Iraq. Lisa Ferdinando (FORT CAMPBELL COURIER) adds, "The United States potentially will make recommendations to position U.S. troops with Iraqi security
forces in northern Iraq to support the next phase of isolating the key
city of Mosul, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said."

The continued talk of sending more US troops to Iraq comes as there's yet another US death in Iraq.

STARS & STRIPES reports, "A coalition servicemember supporting operations against Islamic State
militants in Iraq and Syria died of a noncombat-related injury in Iraq,
the Combined Joint Task Force in charge of Operation Inherent Resolve
said in a statement."

There's no authorization from Congress for what he's ordering in Iraq and Syria.

The issue of the lack of authorization was raised in today's US State Dept press briefing moderated by spokesperson Mark Toner.

QUESTION: About the authorization for the use of military
force against ISIL that Mitch McConnell put forward, do you have any
concerns about it being effectively an international martial law
declaration where the U.S. could take action anywhere with any number of
troops and for any duration of time? Do you find anything concerning
about this kind of authorization?MR TONER: I haven’t looked at the draft legislation. I’m sure
that we’re working with Congress. I’d also refer you to the White House
on some of these issues, so I don’t have any particular comment to that.
What we want to see, as in any case like this, is a robust debate
within Congress, and we’re ready to look at any legislation once it
passes.QUESTION: It offers sweeping powers to the President. Do you
think – would you like the next President of the U.S. to have such an
authorization?MR TONER: Again, without having it in front of me, without having studied it, I’m not going to offer a judgment on it.Please.QUESTION: Do you feel that this is a step to sort of augment the
President’s strategy in the fight against ISIS, Mitch McConnell’s --MR TONER: Look, again, this is something we’ve been back and
forth with on Congress many times. It’s an ongoing discussion. What I
think we want to see is, as I said, is a robust debate within Congress
on the AUMF going forward. We would welcome that.QUESTION: And in the absence of a different kind of
authorization, is the Administration – would the Administration be
inclined to accept this sweeping one?MR TONER: Again, we’re looking into the legislation, working with Congress, but nothing to announce on that.Please.QUESTION: But the point is you still don’t think you need this
anyways, right? You’re – you have a legal war as far as you’re
concerned.

Iraqi
security forces and pro-government militias committed possible war
crimes during 2015 in their fight against the extremist group Islamic
State, also known as ISIS, by unlawfully demolishing buildings in
recaptured areas and forcibly disappearing residents, Human Rights Watch
said today in its World Report 2016.Iran, the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, France,
and other countries provided military support to the Iraqi government
despite a continued absence of credible accountability for those
responsible for these crimes. ISIS carried out numerous atrocities, including summary executions and indiscriminate bombings.

“ISIS and Iraq’s government-affiliated militias are both committing
atrocities against civilians with evident support from their
commanders,” said Joe Stork,
deputy Middle East director. “Making matters worse – much worse – is
the fact that Iraq’s justice system isn’t providing any semblance of
accountability.”

As we stated last week, the Islamic State is a terrorist organization.

Terrorist organizations commit crimes. They do awful things.

That's what a terrorist organization does and is.

But a government is supposed to protect its citizens.

When a government fails to do that or, worse, when it targets and persecutes its citizens, that's what's known as news.

Was it treated as news?

Before we answer that question, let's remember last week, when the United Nations issued a report making
similar points, the western press ran with condemnations of the
terrorist group the Islamic State while avoiding the crimes of the Iraqi
government.

The abducted Americans are only a small fraction of the people that go missing in Iraq every day.Accurate figures on kidnappings are impossible to come by as the
Iraqi government doesn't maintain a database on crime. One member of the
Iraqi parliament told Al Jazeera that the amount of kidnappings has
skyrocketed over the last six months and is now in the thousands.In Sadr City we spoke Hussien Sarmad. He has witnessed intense
activity in his neighbourhood over the last 10 days. He described to us
late-night raids, helicopters buzzing over homes and counter-terrorism
forces in the streets.He is angry that when Iraqis are kidnapped from his neighbourhood, no
one seems to care. "It's funny, all this fuss for three Americans. The
security forces are turning our neighbourhood upside down. I doubt that
they are even here," Sarmad said.It's a common sentiment among Iraqi families who fall victim to this sort of crime.The search for the kidnappers doesn't involve the military. Often
times families of the victims receive no help from the police or
international community and are left to deal with the threats from the
kidnappers themselves.

This is yet another indictment of a government -- the Iraqi government
-- which refuses to protect its citizens. It just doesn't care.

It has to care about Americans because without US support the puppet government out of Baghdad collapses.

Turning to the US political scene, Academy Award winning actress Susan Sarandon is in the news.

She's supporting US Senator Bernie Sanders in the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

Ms. Sarandon said Mrs. Clinton lost her support after voting for the Iraq War in 2002 as a New York senator.“The biggest foreign decision that had to be made in terms of foreign
policy was whether or not to go into Iraq and go into war, and she
failed that test,” she told the Daily Mail.Mrs. Clinton went on to be secretary of state, “but what has she done that we’re bragging about? How has she led?” Ms. Sarandon asked.

“It is one thing to be for gay rights and gay marriage once everybody else is for it,” Sarandon said. “That’s not difficult.”After her speech, Sarandon spoke with the Daily Mail,
expounding on the idea that Clinton hasn’t been a leader in the LGBT
rights movement, despite receiving an endorsement from the Human Rights
Campaign.“There’s a number of issues where she has come around but she very clearly equivocated or was not there in the beginning.

“She was not, and that’s a matter of record, and yes she has come
around. But my point is, it’s great that she came around, but wouldn’t
it be great to be a leader instead of a follower, especially if you’re
going to hold the highest office in the land?”